Bellator 88's Mike Richman's plans for Mitch Jackson: KTFO

Bellator MMA featherweight contender Mike Richman (13-2 MMA, 2-1 BFC) admits he got sloppy in a November TKO loss to Shahbulat Shamhalaev. But if you think that might result in him dialing down the aggression a bit, think again.

“I’m still going to get in the pocket because I like to f—ing destroy people,” Richman told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I’m not going to be hesitant. I’m not going to be scared to get clipped. I’ll still go in there with guns blazing.”

Richman made an immediate splash in Bellator’s featherweight division, scoring knockouts of Jeremy Spoon and Chris Horodecki in just 106 seconds combined action. But against Shamhalaev, it was Richman who was clipped in the opening frame.

“I wanted to go out there and get a highlight-reel finish and keep giving it to the fans, and he just capitalized, really,” Richman admitted.

Still, his earlier work was enough to earn the 27-year-old Minnesotan a spot in Bellator’s Season 8 featherweight tourney, and he meets Mitch Jackson (19-2 MMA, 0-0 BFC) on the Spike TV-broadcast main card of tonight’s Bellator 88 event.

Jackson is a promotional newcomer, but he also comes from from the Minnesota scene, so the fight is a bit of a grudge match.

“This is actually a fight we’ve wanted, locally, for about two-to-three years now,” Richman said. “The timing was never right – he was always booked to fight someone else, and so was I – but we were always pretty much the No. 1 and No. 2 guys in the Minnesota rankings, or what people thought.

“I’m gonna knock him the f— out and send him back to Savage Entertainment or whatever shitty local promotion he’s built his 20-2 record on or been smashing turds in. I mean, this is my house. He’s coming to my house. Bellator’s my house.”

So, yeah, Richman isn’t exactly shy about sharing his intentions. In his most recent outing, he wore a Mike Tyson T-shirt to the cage, and he admits the carelessness with which he attacked ultimately cost him the fight.

This time, he’s not considering dialing back the aggression. He’s just hoping to be more effective in his execution.

“I look at every fight like I’m going into them and finish early – Mike Tyson style,” Richman said. “This dude’s not even on my level. He’s not on the level of the rest of the guys in Bellator either, and I’m going to show that.

“Don’t call it a comeback because I’m going to come out there and be just as ferocious, just as nasty. I’m gonna be in the pocket and looking to just destroy everyone in my path. I’m not going to be gunshy and I’m looking to take people’s heads off.”

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